WRITING TIPS

Observation is the key to good writing. Whether you write realistic fiction or high fantasy or anything in between, grounding aspects of...

Whether or not deep third deserves to be its own POV is a subject of controversy among writers. After all, we are always taught three...

“Everyone is the hero of their own story,” said John Barth. Most people are intrinsically aware of this, but many writers are averse to...

In elementary school, we learn about Freytag’s diagram, the supposed general outline of every plot in the universe. The idea is: a story...

Writing involves a lot more than just writing. One thing we all have to think about at some point is: where do we write? It’s easy to...

In honor of Valentine’s day, I wanted to dedicate this week’s post to romance tropes. Almost every young adult novel has a romantic...

All writers know that feeling… when you want to write, and you know you want to write, but you don’t know what to write about. Finding...

Last week, I focused on story endings, but before every ending comes a beginning. A strong hook is an important part of all stories....

With the end of the year just around the corner, I wanted to spend this post focusing on story endings. Like everything with writing,...

A week after the end of NaNoWriMo, you may have a 50,000-word novel lying around. What next? While revising and editing may seem...

What makes a good story? Yes, you need characters and plotlines that intrigue your readers. But, importantly, setting is also one of the...

Characters are the heart of any story. Most readers read because they’re invested in the characters. They want to see how a character...

Screenwriting—the art of writing screenplays for films or TV shows—can be really exciting. It’s a great way to exercise your description...

A year after the launch of the Chapters Program of The Young Writers Initiative, I wanted to take some time to reflect on the successes...

Happy Pride Month! In honor of pride month, this week’s post talks about the importance of diversity in literature and how to incorporate...

Stakes are the lifeblood of every story. If there’s nothing at stake for the characters, there’s nothing at stake for the readers. If...

Descriptions transport readers to another world or time. You may never have seen Camp Half-Blood or Ketterdam or Narnia (we’re pretending...

A little laughter goes a long way when your characters and readers are stressing about an impending war. Almost every genre can do with a...

Somehow, this is already my 50th post, so I wanted to take a slightly different, more fun approach to writing and discuss some writing...

Almost every story can be traced back to some core plotline that can be found in other books of that type. Harry Potter is about the...